Bhakshanam

I just took a break from Man Vs. Food which I was watching in Discovery – Travel and Living channel.  It’s amazing to know that how a human being started his life with  primitive culture would just feed himself merely by making the food eatable.  Ages passed and now Man, eats and eats day by day but with so much of improvement in the taste and texture of food forms. Culinary experiments are so vast and valid; anybody can just come up with their own taste and make it popular in the world.

In India, the taste is so diversified. Every Indian should make a point to taste at least couple of food preparations from their neighboring states.  In fact, the inter state love marriages that happens in India are the ones which holds the country together.  Since the country is so much branched out in terms of tastes and culture, the people from different states after they tie nuptial knot with the other state,  are initially compelled to like the taste of their counter parts.  But gradually they get used to different food which becomes part of their life.  As myself being blessed with such a role, I am equipped with various recipes from both the states, which makes me easier to keep up the variety in everyday cooking, and have many options to cook.  Fortunately my DH is also OKAY with kannada food. Forgive me, I am not promoting love marriages here . I am making a small effort to focus on advantages and think out of the box for those who are against it.

Once in a while,  I get acquainted with a very weird although traditional or habitual style of taste, which I have never come across in my life .   One of such, my husband rarely, but adorably spoke about was kappi which is made in their ammumma’s hosue.  It was not just a synonym to coffee, but there is more to it.  It was kappi made of coffee powder, water and jaggery and relished by sprinkling freshly grated coconut topping and small dollop of ghee.  No milk used. And that’s the recipe of it.  Of course, kappi comes with loads of stories by ammumma, sitting and listening to it on  one of the rainy monsoon evening.

Oily kitchen and lots of fun is what I remember of my childhood Ugadi days. My father would insist on preparing only obbattu for all the Ugadi fest and he would never compromise on any other replacement for that. Of course once in a way our house used to be filled with guests and their choice of food. But obbattu was always there. It was never prepared again until next Ugadi. It always has a special place in the festive  menu. It was much more easier to make obbattu during family gathering as it would require a good working force.  Frying 40 odd obbattus at one time was quite tiresome for the older lots.  But younger hearts would just bother to eat and not a soul would go for help.  All the older members would gain energy from nowhere to make this sweet as delicious as it looks.  Probably the energy would come from one pinch of bevu – bella they would have in the morning to greet the New year.

The new year is celebrated in three states on the same day.  Andhrapradesh, karnataka and Maharashtra.  They make this obbattu also in almost similar way.

Obbattu comes with two parts, one is kanaka, made of maida is the outer layer.  Other is Hoorna, which made of lentils and jaggery, is the stuffing part.

Keep ready,

Plantain Leaf - 2 squarely cut without the middle partition.

To make Kanaka,

Maida – ½ Kg, Sieved

Chirotti Rava - 2Tbsp ( smaller than medium Rava)

Oil – 1 cup

Turmeric – ¼ tsp

Salt – 1Tsp

Water

To make Hoorna,

Toor dal(Yellow Lentils) - ½ Kg

Jaggery – ½ Kg, Broken into pieces

Fresh Coconut – 1 full, grated

Small Cardamom – 6, deseeded and powdered

To start with,

Mix Maida and Rava with water, along with Salt and turmeric until the consistency is softer than the chapathi dough. Hands gets sticky.  Add up oil little by little, and keep Kneading till the oil just blends with the dough. The more you knead the softer the obbattu. Try pulling little amount of dough, so that  it should not break and it should come out like elastic thread. Now the dough is soaked in generous amount of oil and kept aside.

Add Toor dal to the boiling water. Allow it to cook till it is just done. But the lentil should not be broken and completely mashed. It should be left slightly dry. Filter the lentils and keep aside the filtered dal water.

Boil little water and add up the the jaggery. Once it is melted filter the dust off. Combine Coconut and cooked Lentils, mix it with molten jaggery on a sim fire. Keep on stirring and frying lightly till the content becomes like Halwa, so that its mixed and blended well. Take out from the fire. When it is cold, make lime sized balls and keep aside.

Now take squarely cut plantain leaf, pat lime sized maida dough roughly your palm size with your fingers. It can not be done with rolling pin instead use the fingers and slowly spread towards side, so that it forms somewhat a round shape. Keep the Hoorna ball in the middle, wrap the same with Kanaka. Now the ball is stuffed inside kanaka. Pat the same, starting from the centre outwards. Make sure that you have applied generous oil on the plantain leaf as well as on your hand.

Place the plantain leaf on preheated Tava or griddle, so that the obbattu side is on the tava and slowly lift the plantain leaf with the help of a flat spatula. So that is done. Fry the Obbattu till it becomes golden brown on both sides.

You can reuse the the plantain leaf to make more Obbattus.

How to eat,

People love to eat Obbattu with hot Ghee and warm milk.

Cashew fruit

Its hot in Kerala, and it was a shortest possible vacation at Kannur, with our second little one.  The humidity was choking unable to breath deep.  Little one’s visit to his great grandparents to take their blessings was amazing moment.

But this summer, there was something more to do. It is a business long forgotten after childhood, a cashew nut project.  Kashuvandi as it is called locally is is a major cash crop in Kerala.  Kashumanga is the fruit, for insensitive tongue.  The fruit has distinct odour and rough taste.  Locally they make wine out of it.

As for the nut, its inside the cashew seed attached to the fruit and you literally have to dig in few layers of seed to meet the nut. Its ‘hard to crack the nut’.  There is small time process locally made to get freshly roasted edible nuts which ofcourse requires enough patience.  But the best of all is if you are single handed in this project, like pluck the fruit burn the cashew seed and take the nut out and eat it too, there you are, you know how to survive and enjoy as well !!!

The process goes like this,  first of all you have to go battling all the ants that are climbing the cashew tree, and pluck few of those fruit. And take out the see part of it. These seeds and dried up in the sun for few days.  Once the color changes from fresh green to raw brown, it is put in adupp or firewood stove, where you have hot coal.  Once the cashew seed gain its black burnt texture, it is removed and kept for cooling.  Then each of the shell is broken from the top to take care not to damage the nut inside.  Then come a layer of thin skin attached to nut has to be peeled out carefully.  Now the nut is ready for eating.

If you are lucky enough, probably staying away from family, this is picked and packed and sent to you. Certainly to make a few hundred grams of cashew you need to have enormous patience.